The invention relates to a method of increasing the functional reliability of a motor vehicle that is equipped with a data storage device, or a method of operating a motor vehicle with a data storage device, and it also relates to a motor vehicle with a data storage device.
The term “data storage device” in the sense of the present invention means a device in which data, such as operating data of the motor vehicle, can be stored at least temporarily in a manner that allows the data to be read back in a subsequent reading process. The way in which the data are stored is not limited to any specific data storage principle, but encompasses all kinds of electrical, electronic, electromagnetic, and optical data storage devices as well as data storage devices based on other principles.
Motor vehicles equipped with one or more data storage devices are known in the existing state of the art.
For example, a motor vehicle is known that has a control device as well as a data storage device. While the vehicle is in operation, various kinds of operating data are processed by the control device. Some of the data being processed remain constant during the entire operating time, and some have values that vary during the operating time. After the engine has been turned off, the data values are read into the storage device. The data storage is organized by means of storage addresses, with one data value or parameter value being stored per address. When the engine is subsequently started again, the stored data values are read back from the storage device into the control device.
When used under ideal conditions, the known motor vehicle of the foregoing description, or the known method of operating the vehicle or of handling the operating data have shown favorable results.
As a rule, however, the real-world operating conditions do not conform to the assumed ideal situation. Under real-world conditions, there is, e.g., the risk that a cell or element of the data storage device may get damaged at any given time, or that the required supply of electric power to the data storage device may be interrupted while the transfer of data into the device is in process.
With a failure of the kind just mentioned, the data cannot be retrieved from the storage device when the vehicle is started up again. In an extreme situation, the motor vehicle could be made entirely inoperable by a failure condition related to the data storage.
Also known is a motor vehicle with a data storage device, or a method of operating the vehicle, where the latter is equipped with a control device for controlling an actuator device of a clutch. In this known arrangement, a target value is set for a required amount of clutch actuator travel. Furthermore, a command signal is generated to cause an actual displacement of the clutch actuator. Preferably, the command signal corresponds to the target value or a transformed signal representative of the target value. In a situation, where the resultant actual displacement is found to stay unchanged (i.e., the displacement shows a zero time gradient), although the target value has not yet been reached, the actuator shuts itself off and/or a failure is registered.
The shut-off and/or the failure signal indicates that a specific type of malfunction is present in the system.
The known motor vehicle of the foregoing description provides on the one hand a protection against overload of the clutch actuator and on the other hand allows malfunctions in the vehicle, or more specifically in the clutch system, to be recognized.